Favorite sceneshttp://e-gosciniec.net
Thu, 02 Jan 2020 02:50:14 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.17On the other side of the rainbowhttp://e-gosciniec.net/post168
http://e-gosciniec.net/post168#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:50:14 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=168Judy (2019)
Judy
biographical, drama, historical, melodrama
Director: Rupert Gould
Cast: Renee Zellweger, Jesse Buckley, Finn Wittrock, Rufus Sewell, Michael Gambon
Premiere: October 17, 2019
In 1938, Judy Garland got a role in her main film – The Wizard of Oz. From this begins the story of the great actress and singer, told in the biopic of Rupert Gould. The filming is about to begin, and the head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer, tells 16-year-old Judy that she is not much different from hundreds of other girls with big dreams and ambitions. However, thanks to her unique voice, she is capable of great achievements – all you have to do is work 18 hours a day, refrain from eating and take amphetamines with barbiturates in order to fight sleep, and then insomnia.

Judy Garland and Renee Zellweger
Thirty years later, all old habits remained with her (except perhaps a constant glass in her hand), only now Garland, which has received international recognition, is no longer striving for fame and success. Behind her, she has four failed marriages, and in front of her looms the threat of losing custody of her beloved children. Christmas Eve is approaching, and an aging star receives engagement for performances in London. In this way, she hopes to put life in order, but the capital of Great Britain does not at all look like the treasured Emerald City, where you can meet a wizard who is ready to fulfill any desire.

Shot from the movie “Judy”
Unlike another musical biopic of this year – “Rocketman” about the formation of Elton John – “Judy” strives too hard to get into all the notes of the classical genre scheme and thereby deprives himself of expression and sensual performance. No one doubts that Garland herself really sang with her heart, which, touching the center of her chest, reminds Louis B. Meyer of the young actress not in the most comfortable scene, but the film itself only reproduces a set of sounds familiar to everyone, devoid of originality.

Shot from the movie “Judy”
Of course, all this does not apply to the phenomenal game of Renee Zellweger, who, after a long lull, seems ready to re-enter the struggle for the main world film awards. External resemblance, which can not be achieved either with the help of makeup, or thanks to dark contact lenses, does not play a special role here. Much more important, as naturally the star of the Diary of Bridget Jones turns out to convey the facial expressions, gestures and habits of her heroine. A hunched back, a mannered gait, a little frightening grimaces – you have never seen such a Zellweger anywhere else. And even more so they did not hear. The actress was preparing for the role for a long time and was engaged in vocals, and in her performance the main hits of Garland sounded in a special manner – not so powerful, but anguished enough to feel the approaching death of a fading star. Without a nomination for an Oscar, it definitely will not do.

Shot from the movie “Judy”
The main emotion that the creators of Judy play is pity. We see how insensitive uncles from the entertainment industry break a very fragile girl who seems to be able to protest, but her attempts are limited only to biting a burger in front of the photographers and jumping into a fake pool during the celebration of its 16th birthday (which started a make-believe). The sacrifice that Garland brought to the Hollywood god of success, as we see later, was too great. The promising yellow brick road turned into a pit filled with cobblestones, from which, for all its strengths, the actress was unable to get out. And the audience, although it continues to applaud, but it manages to drown out the voices in her head only for a moment.

Immediately relevant for our time, the subtext is read, because Judy Garland sings in this film through the lips of all women who had to face injustice. It’s not just that they show us how absolutely everything allows her on-screen partner Mickey Rooney, while Judy has to starve herself and sit on tablets. But, despite the history saturated with hopelessness and not dodging cliches, the outcome of which is already known to everyone, the picture still carries faith in the future. After all, while the music is playing, hope will be alive – on this promising note, the story of a Minnesota girl ends with the familiar Over all Rainbow. Well, the show, as we know, will continue anyway.

]]>http://e-gosciniec.net/post168/feed0Mom canhttp://e-gosciniec.net/post165
http://e-gosciniec.net/post165#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:46:49 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=165Terminator: Dark Fates (2019)
Terminator: Dark Fate
action, adventure, fiction
Director: Tim Miller
Cast: Mackenzie Davis, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Luna
Premiere: October 31, 2019
The Mexican girl Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) lives herself and does not bother anyone until one day a new generation Terminator (Gabriel Luna) who wants to kill her is announced on the threshold of her parents’ house. The cyborg girl Grace (Mackenzie Davis), who came from the future, also helps to cope with Dani’s problem. She explains to Dani in the form of an educational program that there’s no need for anything, and an aggressive, elderly aunt who got out of nowhere, which, of course, turns out to be Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Together they run away from the Terminator and try to understand what to do – run or fight?

Shot from the movie Terminator: Dark Fates
For almost thirty years, studio bosses have been trying to figure out what they can do with Terminator, a cult franchise that began with two outstanding films that, in general, did not mean any continuation. But they (in the sense of continuation) still come out and with enviable constancy nobody especially likes: “Terminator 3” was disliked because it destroyed all the meanings built by Cameron; “May the savior come” – because he lost history against the background of beautiful effects; “Genesis” – because it exists at all. For thirty years the studios have been spinning the franchise this way and that, but they haven’t really gotten anything: the most decent thing that has been broadcast on Terminator since 1991 is Frank Miller’s comic book Robocop vs. Terminator. Which, as it were, already says a lot.

Shot from the movie Terminator: Dark Fates
Now, after so much time, franchise rights have returned to James Cameron, the man from whom it all began. True, he is now too busy with Avatars to be distracted by long-term franchises, and so he threw all the responsibility on Tim Miller, the director of Deadpool, and from behind the scenes he began to push motivational speeches, which we seem to already have they heard something. “This is a terrific sequel,” “the very sequel that we have been waiting for so long.” Somewhere at this point it was worth beingware: in the same way, five years ago, Cameron spoke about Genesis.

Shot from the movie Terminator: Dark Fates
“Dark Fates”, designed to return “the very spirit” of the original dilogy, actually look like an ultimatum hodgepodge of paths and plot moves that unsuccessful sequels brought to the series. This, like Rise of the Machines, is a direct continuation of Terminator 2, aggravating the conflict between people and Skynet (in this case, the Skynet substitute, which is even explained by the funny moral that “people don’t learn anything” ) As in “May the Savior Come,” scenes in the post-apocalyptic future play a big role here. From Genesis to Dark Fates, comedic references and other postmodernist jokes migrated. It could be assumed that the team of scriptwriters (and that’s exactly what the team there, as many as 7 people, including Cameron and David S. Goyer himself) incorporated into the new part all the best that their predecessors came up with, and finally gathered everything into a digestible story. In fact, it rather threw everything into a heap, making such a “Terminator” in a vacuum, an absolute cybernetic simulacrum, incoherent, chaotic and giving a very superficial idea of ​​everything that happened in the franchise from the very beginning.

Shot from the movie Terminator: Dark Fates
From Cameron’s original films, there is only a plot similarity – Dark Fates simultaneously copy the first and second parts, interfering with the problems of predetermining the future with the story of a quiet little woman confronted with a shocking fact of her importance. Only instead of Sarah Connor is a certain Dani Ramos, a heroine of a new order, in whose transformation the creators are trying to show how much the idea of ​​strong female characters in the cinema has changed over the course of three decades. The motive is good, the performance is not too much: somewhere in the middle of the film “Dark Fates” under the guise of a colossal twist they give out that Dani, you see, is not the mother of the Messiah and not the Virgin Mary, but the real Jesus is. And what exactly on her shoulders, and not on some abstract descendant, lies the future of mankind.

Shot from the movie Terminator: Dark Fates
Everything would be alright if this idea were not presented with such an aplomb: the viewer, who is simply not given a chance to come into emotional contact with the heroine, for some reason should be amazed beyond measure that the role of a woman in society is not limited to motherhood. In addition, the film cannot fully determine what is more important to it: an innovative idea or a comfortable fan service. He often pushes new heroes behind the backs of colorful oldies and at the end gives the right to the “last blow” not to Dani and not even Cyborg Grace, but to gray-bearded Schwarzenegger (he also gets the best jokes, and almost all the airliners go to the aged Sarah Connor).

]]>http://e-gosciniec.net/post165/feed0Review of the film “Raving Riot: Rave at Parliament”http://e-gosciniec.net/post162
http://e-gosciniec.net/post162#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:44:27 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=162Raving riot: Parliament rave (2019)
Raving riot
documentary
Director: Stepan Polivanov
Premiere: October 24, 2019
In May 2018, anti-drug raids in two clubs are held in Tbilisi. One of them is Bassiani, which earned the title of the local Berghain and allowed to talk about the emergence of a new generation of a whole youth culture in Georgia. An attempt by the authorities to invade this new sphere yielded a completely unexpected result: for two days a massive unceasing rave took place near the building of the local parliament, the state backed up and the mask shows in the clubs ended.

Frame from the film “Raving Riot: Rave at the Parliament”
In 2018, the 25-year-old film director Stepan Polivanov, who shot the documentary “Turn The Record” about the culture of vinyl and music in the USSR and Russia a couple of years ago, ended up in Georgia and became a direct witness to the surge of youth protests, strongly insisted on techno-culture. Here it will be appropriate to screw in the common phrase “he was at the right time in the right place.” And the eye of the beginning filmmaker quickly grasped the main image and conflict, from which it is quite possible to dance to the big picture. Brightly dressed youth, challenging the monotonous officialdom. Everything is clear and understandable, it would seem, but erroneous movements are quite possible. When politics intervenes in dancing, it’s very easy to do too much pa. Polivanov managed not to commit it. But he also failed to make some outstanding and technically complex tricks.

Frame from the film “Raving Riot: Rave at the Parliament”
At the beginning of the picture, one of the heroes throws a phrase explaining a lot about the lifestyle of Georgian youth (as well as many others): “Day is for those people who are afraid. When they go to bed, we take to the streets. ” Most of the film is exactly what happens at night. Young animals look absolutely natural in this nocturne. And they say basically the right thing, explaining their position. And they are also doing quite the right thing – they kiss, dance and try to come off with might and main contrary to the impending storm.

Frame from the film “Raving Riot: Rave at the Parliament”
The first thing you should not expect from “Rave at the Parliament” is parallels with the protests in Russia (not too successful). Despite the fact that we systematically and almost synchronously carry out drug trafficking in clubs (just remember the drug trafficking in Rabitsa, which led to the closure of the club, the cancellation of the Outline festival, the closure of the Arma17 club, and this only applies to Moscow). The director even removed a passage from the final version of the film in which one of the characters says that he will never speak Russian, because the Russians do not know how to fight, and he does not respect it. If the picture had a reproachful shade and carried the message “look as it should”, it would be too one-sided. Those who need it will understand that everything seems to be adults and prosarennye people.

What did Polivanov lack? Latitudes of the view and picture of the world. The film lasts only an hour, and is made in the genre of a video essay about the protests that are taking place right now in very many parts of the world. There are plenty of such documentary films; they are constantly present at film screenings, because each person has a movie camera near each barricade. There is a lack of a distinct portrait of those on the opposite side. It is understandable why: it is unlikely that any of the senior officials would begin to communicate with a 25-year-old Russian guy on camera. But I would like to get a clearer image of the enemy, this is an important guarantee of the success of a creative work. And I would like to dive into a deeper analysis of the national characteristics of the riot. There are references to the events of 1989 in the film, and the trend of neo-fascism, into which present-day Georgia is quite willingly slipping, is somehow casually forwarded. But after the not yet made, but nevertheless rather serious accusations that the Russians do not know how to fight, I would like to hear successful historical examples of the uprisings committed by the nation of winemakers and poets. Instead, we are given an interview with an artist who records 20 different kinds of crap (literally) on audio. Ok, let’s say this is also an option. But the question is where.

]]>http://e-gosciniec.net/post162/feed0Real “sharp peaks”http://e-gosciniec.net/post159
http://e-gosciniec.net/post159#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:42:17 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=159The crime drama produced by Bibisi and Netflix focuses mainly on the Shelby family, a gang of criminals infiltrating the upper classes in English Birmingham of the 1920s. However, the real Sharp Peaks scoured Birmingham in a completely different time period.

In the series, Killian Murphy plays the role of Thomas Shelby, a war hero who uses his rogue status and intelligence to take serious steps to seize power in Birmingham and beyond. Like the fictional crime boss Michael Corleone from The Godfather, Tommy has style and prudence, and is ready to kill enemies for reasons of revenge or strength. This character is tormented by obsessive memories of the First World War and the death of his wife Grace (Annabelle Wallis). Tommy is the face of Sharp Peaks, embodying the style and basic philosophical principles of this gang. However, the vulnerability and paranoia of this character move the narrative of the series, and give the rest of the gang members much more depth and experience than the real criminals had.

But at one time, Sharp Peaks really fell into the forefront of Birmingham newspapers and were famous for their unique approach. Knight said in an interview that he created the series on the basis of his father’s stories about men who “dressed impeccably, wore caps, and in their trousers they had pistols.” We tell the real story of Sharp Visors, from which the series was made.

Sharp visors
Who were the bandits from the Sharp Peaks?

In Birmingham of the 1890s, a special subculture arose as a result of economic decline. Overseas in New York, various groups of disadvantaged people began to turn to organized crime. The same thing happened in the hometown of the Peaks. Here, the criminals were mainly young people who earned money by gambling and robbery. They constantly resorted to violence in order to secure a certain amount of power and strength. The true story of the Sharp Peaks originates in the 1870s. According to historian Barbara Weinberger, the gang arose for the first time because anti-Irish sentiments in society “provided young city residents with the opportunity to throw out disappointment and frustration, thus establishing themselves in gang warfare.” By the 1890s, this subculture began to be associated with a certain style: felt bowler hats, with pointed fields and pulled over the forehead. Apparently, some residents were blinded by the charisma of criminals, while others claimed that members of the gang were poorly seen due to the fact that their eyes were most often covered with headgear.

Since the Sharp Visors were known as working gentlemen from the lower classes, their particular style was contrary to the clothes they were supposed to wear, at least in theory. In addition, the sharp peaks consisted of various gangs and certainly were not one criminal family. Criminals such as Thomas Gilbert worked with a particular team, and thanks to them, the name “Sharp Visors” became more visible in the culture of Birmingham. They were a family only by friendship – they were not tied up by blood ties or a common code, like the “omerta” of the Italian-American mafia.

Over time, according to Birmingham industrialist Arthur Mattison, the so-called Sharp Peaks began to call themselves “hard workers,” the result of an “environment of poverty, squalor, and slum.” At the beginning of the 20th century, a gang of young people adhered to the same style and way of life, but mainly out of necessity, and not as part of a grand scheme of seizing power in Birmingham. The sharp peaks slowly fell apart due to sports, movies and other activities that young people were involved in. In short, for many of them, life has become easier, and they did not need to resort to low-grade atrocities in order to make ends meet. Sharp visors grew and disappeared. And it is precisely in this time period that the action of the television series Sharp Visors begins.

What events and characters were real?

Sharp visors
The Shelby family of The Sharp Peaks is not based on real historical figures, but the world in which its members live reflects the real Birmingham society of the 1920s. For example, the movie star Charlie Chaplin (pictured above) appears in the second season of the series, and this is the case, since he really was a native of Birmingham, brought up in a family of gypsies. In fact, Chaplin knew very well that the Sharp peaks reached their peak several decades earlier. But the appearance of Chaplin in the series serves as a kind of glamorous turn, as it allows the Shelby family to extend its influence to Hollywood itself.

Tommy Shelby in the television series is confronted by real historical figures. Billy Kimber, the head of the Birmingham boys, was a real gangster, as was Charles “Darby” Sabini, a Londoner criminal who controlled racket races in southern England. Kimber and Sabini really competed with each other, and they both constantly appear in the “sharp peaks.”

]]>http://e-gosciniec.net/post159/feed0Charming pranksterhttp://e-gosciniec.net/post156
http://e-gosciniec.net/post156#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:34:32 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=156Portrait of a Girl on Fire (2019)
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu
drama, historical, melodrama
Director: Celine Syamma
Cast: Noemi Merlan, Adele Anel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino, Kristel Baras
Premiere: October 24, 2019
The artist and drawing teacher Marian (Noemi Merlan) is asked about the origin of one of her paintings – the mysterious “Portrait of a Girl on Fire”. She recalls how she once received an order to draw a wedding portrait of Eloise (Adele Enel), a girl living in a secluded estate on the northern coast of France. She protests against marriage and refuses to pose, so Marian is forced to paint a portrait secretly, posing as Eloise’s companion. Girls are attracted to each other, although they understand that they can never be together.

Shot from the film “Portrait of a Girl on Fire”
“Portrait of a Girl on Fire” is the fourth directorial work of one of the main directors of modern France, Celine Syamma, who is largely known as the screenwriter of the animated film Life of the Zucchini, nominated for an Oscar. Her previous films form a kind of growing trilogy: “Water Lilies” are devoted to sexual awakening in teenage girls, “Tornado” explores the gender identity of pre-adolescence, and “Girlhood” – friendships through the prism of youthful maximalism. “Portrait” departs from the theme of growing up and opens a new, adult period in the work of Syamma, but retains its directorial minimalism and emphasis on the female look.

Shot from the film “Portrait of a Girl on Fire”

“Portrait of a Girl on Fire” is a rather old-fashioned movie made without any frills. For example, a theme-related “Favorite” tried to surprise with stylistic features (the use of fish-eye lenses) and structural ones (for example, the film does not contain the main character, because the script takes three women to a central position in turn). Syamma is not interested in such tricks, so the film looks like you saw it all, but separately from other directors. No innovation – just a strict scenario with a linear structure, a few flashbacks and roll calls with the “Person” by Ingmar Bergman.

Breton landscapes create a poetic atmosphere of a frozen time in which dialogs are not as important as the looks and touches of the heroines or the colors of their dresses (the confrontation of green and red, as in “Dyld” by Kantemir Balagov). The main strength of the film in its simplicity and sophistication is an important memory for the heroines, from which time simply washed away everything unnecessary.

Shot from the film “Portrait of a Girl on Fire”
Memory is one of the main themes of the film. It is not surprising that through the prism of memories, girls in the company of a young servant girl discuss the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Well-read Eloise offer their interpretation of events: Orpheus remembered the condition of Hades, but consciously turned around, because the memories of the young and beloved Eurydice are more important to him than the reunion with the dead girl. These cues are the key to Celine Syamma’s film.

The director does not rewrite historical processes – she does not allow her heroines to escape from the social norms of that time and gain ghostly happiness. At the same time, it does not turn impossible love into a tragedy in order to break the hearts of the audience – on the contrary, it allows the heroines to enjoy several weeks spent together, and gives them the opportunity to return to memories in which they will always be young and loved, like Eurydice in Orpheus’s memory . This is practically an adaptation of the annoying quote “Do not cry, because it is over. Smile because it happened, “but the main thing is just a modest film in which a woman talks about women, not trying to please men.

Breton landscapes create a poetic atmosphere of a frozen time in which dialogs are not as important as the looks and touches of the heroines or the colors of their dresses (the confrontation of green and red, as in “Dyld” by Kantemir Balagov). The main strength of the film in its simplicity and sophistication is an important memory for the heroines, from which time simply washed away everything unnecessary.

]]>http://e-gosciniec.net/post156/feed0Review of the cartoon “Addams Family”http://e-gosciniec.net/post153
http://e-gosciniec.net/post153#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:31:39 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=153Addams Family (2019)
The addams family
animation, comedy, family, horror, fantasy
Directors: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Charlize Theron, Amy Garcia, Oscar Isaac, Finn Wolfard
Premiere: October 31, 2019
Mortisha and Gomez barely had time to get married, as they had to leave their favorite town, because the locals could not come to terms with their “oddities.” On the way to New Jersey, a couple accidentally knocks down a thug who escaped from an empty psychiatric hospital for maniacs. The scary man’s name is Larch, and the deserted mental hospital, filled with ghosts, is suitable for the newlyweds to equip the family nest. But the place and the truth is what is needed – far from the city and people, there is a lot of space, you can chat with a ghost if you are bored. They lived in a new place happily for many years, during which time Mortisha and Gomez had children – Wensday and Pugsley, but the offspring were forbidden to contact the outside world. During this time, they managed to equip the neighboring town, building it up with elite houses. The architect Margo Nidler was engaged in all this, who needs to have time to sell all the real estate before the opening of the residential complex. Of course, the neighboring Addams mansion greatly interferes with the image of the city, so Margo decides to take measures to eliminate the gloomy neighbors. At the same time, relatives are beginning to catch up with the Addams at an important event, who scare the townspeople to death, and the story of the persecution seems to be repeated again.

Frame from the animated film “Addams Family”
The original comic strip The Addams Family, designed by Charles Addams, first appeared, scary to think, in 1938 (in the form of small illustrations for New Yorker magazine). Since then, based on this story, they managed to make several series, two cult full-length films, a couple of not very successful ones, and even one Halloween speshel. Of all this diversity, only the films of Barry Sonnenfeld and the series of the 60s can be distinguished, they are still quoted by the people. Now the 3D version of the heroes has been made, and their stars of the first magnitude have been voiced – from Charlize Theron to Finn Wulfard (which no one will notice at the Russian box office due to dubbing).

Frame from the animated film “Addams Family”
The cartoon has little to do with the original comic book and the very idea of ​​the Addams Family as a whole. Initially, it was a witty satire on society, the characters personified the exact opposite of the “ideal” family portrait, for which they received worldwide recognition. Addams were always self-sufficient characters and were never embarrassed by their “oddities,” not even to say that they noticed any difference, they simply lived by their own rules, which contrasted very much with the world around them. But the reaction of society to their antics has always been very comical. Therefore, the idea of ​​isolating the family from people did not bring anything good to the cartoon. The new “Addams” turned out to be such outcasts, who would rather remain in the comfort zone and communicate with the spirit-obsessed house than with their neighbors.

All these innovations were needed in order to introduce a moralizing tirade into the plot that we are all different, but our differences are not a reason to start a war (yeah, tell Pugzley that!). The problems of fathers and children were also added to this rainbow-colored cocktail, so that they could completely make Addams a social video about family values, over which the comic was originally successfully ironic. The directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon decided to play in a safe territory, completely depriving the Addams of their charisma – the inherent characters of the afterlife flera and jokes as torn as broken glass. Such a sterile version of the Addams Family can be great entertainment for the kids for the evening (although the film has a 12+ rating, which cuts off the very target audience), but it will disappear from memory the next day. As Wensday Addams once said, “mortal boredom.”

The original comic strip The Addams Family, designed by Charles Addams, first appeared, scary to think, in 1938 (in the form of small illustrations for New Yorker magazine). Since then, based on this story, they managed to make several series, two cult full-length films, a couple of not very successful ones, and even one Halloween speshel. Of all this diversity, only the films of Barry Sonnenfeld and the series of the 60s can be distinguished, they are still quoted by the people. Now the 3D version of the heroes has been made, and their stars of the first magnitude have been voiced – from Charlize Theron to Finn Wulfard (which no one will notice at the Russian box office due to dubbing).

]]>http://e-gosciniec.net/post153/feed0And drove to the Summer Gardenhttp://e-gosciniec.net/post150
http://e-gosciniec.net/post150#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:28:35 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=150Frenchman (2019)
drama
Director: Andrey Smirnov
Cast: Anton Rival, Evgenia Obraztsova, Alexander Baluev, Evgeny Tkachuk, Mikhail Efremov
Premiere: October 31, 2019
In 1957, Pierre Duran, a French student with Russian roots (Anton Rival), flew to Soviet Moscow for an annual internship at Moscow State University. Pierre has two tasks in the USSR – to collect information for his report on Russian ballet and a more personal motive, to establish the fate of his father, white officer Alexei Tatishchev (Alexander Baluev), whose trace was lost in the camps of the 1930s. The acquaintances with whom Pierre acquires in Moscow (among them Prima Bolshoi (Yevgeny Obraztsova) and VGIK student Valera (Yevgeny Tkachuk)), become for him guides to a mentality alien to himself and a society full of mysteries, living by other laws.

Shot from the movie “Frenchman”
78-year-old Andrei Smirnov always looked out of the ordinary in a local cinema as an outstanding figure. Having removed only five full-length films (“The Frenchman” the sixth) during his career, Smirnov managed to make tapes that instantly received the status of a classic (“Belorussky Vokzal” as a study of post-war injuries of veterans), and films about which the nomenclature pretended to be does not exist (“Autumn” with its unusually disrespectful attitude to the cell of society for Soviet cinema).

Shot from the movie “Frenchman”
Therefore, as a director, he is very comfortable feeling in the role of an outsider, and he well understands the benefits that a distant look at our reality brings. And the black and white retrodrama about the early years of the Khrushchev thaw (Stalin died just a few years ago) refracts the laws of this cozy genre, throwing hooks into the present and even into the inevitable near future. And in some places it looks like a fantasy at all, where a lone hero painstakingly examines the inhospitable red planet with a look for signs of life on it.

Shot from the movie “Frenchman”
In fact, Smirnov, of course, is well acquainted with the subject of the story and is happy to saturate it with mouth-watering details and nuances. In addition to the nightly vigil obligatory for the genre, the radio station in search of enemy voices of freedom will also have a trip to Lianozovo to get acquainted with unofficial art, huddled in barracks near Moscow. There will be underground jazz concerts in clubs, and home parties with dancing and drinking. In these scenes they will show not only the places where life has been and continues to boil in our area (dead bodies and corridors of power and organs will fall into their antithesis to them). Here, in a natural habitat, a homo sovietkus torn by deep internal contradictions will be shown: ready to clumsily praise the Three Musketeers as a favorite book of Soviet youth, and then scribble denunciation to foreigners in the KGB.

Shot from the movie “Frenchman”
Of course, almost completely conversational monochrome drama is not the easiest test for the modern viewer, who is completely unprepared for any trials. But Smirnov, if possible, dilutes it with references to paintings of the new wave and the thaw movie. He also enlisted the masterful acting work of both the new (Tkachuk) and the older (Baluev, Efremov) generations, and he himself enters the frame – which he has been doing regularly lately.

The film has real historical roots – in the fifties a delegation of French Slavists came to Moscow State University, including Georges Niva, who translated Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Bely, had an affair with the daughter of his wife Pasternak and was awarded a poem by Bulat Okudzhava. The Frenchman is dedicated to the dissident Alexander Ginzburg, and his comrade-in-arms Vera Lashkova played a small role in it. Smirnov seems to have no desire to determine the fate of an entire ethnic group, as in his previous, much more epic and not so successful painting, “Once upon a time there was a woman.” But thanks to its focus, integrity and confidence, the “Frenchman” becomes such a reminder to himself (as well as to those who have already forgotten, and to those who never knew), what an amazing feeling this is, when the frost weakens, the temperature drops and the air becomes softer.

To be honest, instead of talking about cinema in a historical context, literally the following should be printed here in capital letters: “Escape from the Shawshank” after several years of rivalry with “The Godfather” became the number one film based on the results of a vote by users of imdb.com. Almost half a million voted, more than half of them were generous at the maximum rating. What else would a filmmaker dream about?

It is in this assessment of the nameless network users, and not in the sentimental story of a prison accountant with two lifetimes – the main plot and drama of the film. It doesn’t matter whether or not the writer Frank Darabont (“Escape from the Shawshank” his directorial debut) set his goal to coincide with millions, the main thing is that he succeeded. Moreover, Darabont managed to solve a much more difficult problem: he showed what the ideal adaptation of Stephen King should be. Prior to him, perhaps Brian de Palme (“Carrie”) was able to discern material in King’s prose for a full-fledged cinematic statement. The rest, even the most pompous adaptations of the writer, are only strong handicrafts with eerie oddities in the script.
It was hard to expect this from the screenwriter of numerous Tales from the Crypt, the third Nightmare on Elm Street and the second Flies, but Darabont was able to inject a fair amount of old-fashioned Hollywood respectability into King’s story, which fit into a work written with an eye on this very Hollywood. Selling rights for one dollar to his friend Frank Darabonte, the author admitted that he wrote the story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” as tribute to the classic prison dramas – “cold-blooded hatches”, fugitive convicts and other Alcatraz prisoners. So Darabont could only put into the background a cunning plot move with an escape – until the very end, nothing portends the outcome appearing in the title – and bring optics to human relations.

As the sensitive Roger Ebert noted: “It’s incredible to say this about prison drama, but“ Shawshank Redemption ”fills the viewer’s heart with warmth and makes you feel like a member of a big loving family.” Well, it’s hard to disagree with him. The main character of the film, the financial genius Andy Dufrain, lives under the guise of a library worm and altruist, while “Escape from the Shawshank” itself very successfully pretends to be a tough story, being, in fact, a melodrama of family use. The proper softness factor in an aggressive penitentiary environment is provided by the noble voice-over voice of Morgan Freeman and a measured pace, which the director diligently supports.
Neglecting the harsh nature, Darabont focused on everyday affairs. Instead of preparing to escape from the most terrible prison, we observe gatherings in the dining room, walks around the yard, the first attempts at socialization and fights with sexually active jocks. Like at school. Posters in Andy’s cell measure time. First, Rita Hayworth (The Guild, 1946), then Marilyn Monroe (The Itch of the Seventh Year, 1955), and then Raquel Welch (The Million Years BC, 1966): a wonderful teenage set, three women who lit up a gloomy male kingdom fenced off from the rest of the world.

Evaluate the central conflict: an uncompromising dispute with the stern “father” – the chief of the Shoushenka – for the right to leave his father’s house. Andy, who escapes from a prison that has become his home (or maybe from a house that has become his prison), is essentially born to a new life. He slides past Raquel Welch, hanging on the wall of the “neighbor’s girl,” and overcomes the cleaning kilometers of the sewer pipe. Like yesterday’s tenth grader, he is eager for Mexico, the sea, the sun. Twenty years have passed. It’s time to live your life.

As the sensitive Roger Ebert noted: “It’s incredible to say this about prison drama, but“ Shawshank Redemption ”fills the viewer’s heart with warmth and makes you feel like a member of a big loving family.” Well, it’s hard to disagree with him. The main character of the film, the financial genius Andy Dufrain, lives under the guise of a library worm and altruist, while “Escape from the Shawshank” itself very successfully pretends to be a tough story, being, in fact, a melodrama of family use. The proper softness factor in an aggressive penitentiary environment is provided by the noble voice-over voice of Morgan Freeman and a measured pace, which the director diligently supports.

]]>http://e-gosciniec.net/post147/feed0Belgian nudist in search of the sacred hammerhttp://e-gosciniec.net/post144
http://e-gosciniec.net/post144#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:22:14 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=144Patrick (2019)
De patrick
drama comedy
Director: Tim Milants
Cast: Jamaine Clement, Kevin Janssens, Hannah Hextra, Ian Bijvoet, Pain Lanners
Patrick (Kevin Janssens) is almost 40, and he still hangs on the neck of his parents – the owners of a very specific summer camp, where everyone runs completely naked. He spends his free days designing and planing crafting furniture, which, however, does not show anyone. When Patrick’s elderly father dies, a whole bunch of worries falls on his son: someone wants to take his place on the nudist throne, someone is dissatisfied with the arrogance of a visiting American musician (an unexpected but rather short exit by Jamein Clement), and someone obsessively expresses regrets about the death of the parent. Patrick doesn’t care much about everything: he has his own tragedy – he lost the hammer from his favorite collection, which has been discontinued for six years. Patrick begins the investigation.

Shot from the movie “Patrick”
In addition to all the cinematic trends, which are understated and negotiated hundreds of thousands of times (this is the dominance of blockbusters, and the hegemony of the sequels, in general, you yourself know), 2019 was another strange trend. For some reason, this year an indecent number of absurd comedies, films with an equally serious face redrawing the rules of gray being came out. Moreover, this trend is not geographically recorded at all: “Dick Long’s Death” was released in the USA from one of the participants in the duet Daniels (authors of “The Man is a Swiss Knife”, also absurd), “The Art of Self-Defense” with Jesse Eisenberg and “Greener Grass”; in France Quentin Dupier made his “Deer skin”, in Ireland – “Super (NOT) natural”. And now there’s a Belgian answer to the world flow of funny syur: the film “Patrick” is about an autistic guy who cannot find his hammer in any way.

Shot from the movie “Patrick”
“Patrick” is the full-length debut of director Tim Milants, a competent serial director who shot episodes of “Sharp Visors”, “Legion” and “Terror.” His cinema, however, does not at all resemble what he had done before – and, to be honest, it doesn’t look like much at all. “Patrick”, unlike many of his obscene brothers, does not seek to emphasize differentness in every shot, to expose the facets of his unique world, to surprise, amuse or, perhaps, excite at all costs. In this regard, it is very interesting to compare it with the same “Greener Grass”, which recently died out in our cinemas (well, as if it died out, it was probably watched by three people): while American colleagues are transforming ordinary life into an acidic absurdity, turning every routine detail into to the hyperbole, Tim Milants, on the contrary, takes an initially striking setting (nudist camping, where everything from small to large go and shake with causals in front of the camera) and colorful characters only to establish a new norm with their help. Fifteen minutes later, the viewer no longer notices widespread nudity, strange people become familiar and therefore familiar, and a completely idiotic story about the search for a lost hammer suddenly acquires a sincere emotional volume.

Shot from the movie “Patrick”
This is a movie of contradictions: working as an antidetective and deconstructing the laws of the genre, “Patrick” is nevertheless very carefully written by the standards of a detective. Every absurd plot twist here, if you look at it, logically follows from the proposed circumstances and casual facts (the name of one criminal flashes almost in the very first dialogue, and the absurd emotionality of the second is cleverly explained by his motivation). With all the obvious frivolity, the film never seems to joke directly: the plane of the comedic is laid out above the plot, and it’s ridiculous not because the characters act contrary to genre laws, but precisely because inside their absurd plot they move along clear dramatic trajectories, in others conditions quite capable of being the basis for a sentimental tragedy. The most shocking scenes here are the most important ones. The funniest heroes are those that go the longest emotional way.

“Patrick”, like the works of Daniels, is an example of a new, metamodern absurdity in which the surrealism of images and the absolute idiocy of plot moves not only do not cancel out the drama, but, on the contrary, only emphasize it. He seriously, thoroughly and visually sophisticated (figuratively Milants can give odds to any abstruse author with a big “A”) tells a completely seemingly frivolous story, finds emotions where laughter usually drowns them, and meanings in places where no one would did not even search. His hero – infantile, scammer, eccentric – is not hyperbolic, and his strange crusade behind the Grail-hammer does not turn into any abstruse metaphor (the film even jokes about it directly: they say there is no catch here, he really just wants to find a hammer). It’s just that sometimes in the search for a building instrument, there may be more feelings, character and truth of life than in other festival manifestos.

]]>http://e-gosciniec.net/post144/feed0Review of the film “King” from Netflixhttp://e-gosciniec.net/post141
http://e-gosciniec.net/post141#respondThu, 02 Jan 2020 02:19:52 +0000http://e-gosciniec.net/?p=141King (2019)
The king
biographical, drama, historical
Director: David Michaud
Cast: Timothy Chalamet, Robert Pattinson, Ben Mendelssohn, Joel Edgerton, Dean-Charles Chapman
The beginning of the 15th century, the Centennial War between England and France is in full swing. The Prince of Wales Hel (Timothy Chalamet with a “haircut” haircut) is far from politics and does not even stare at the place of his father, King Henry IV (Ben Mendelssohn). He spends his free time in taverns, unconscious, drinking with his friend, Sir Falstaff (Joel Edgerton). However, after the death of the younger brother, who was supposed to leave the crown, and the father, the prince reluctantly takes over the reins. He takes the name Henry V and sets off across the English Channel to conquer France and destroy the Dauphin Louis (Robert Pattinson with a funny French accent).

Frame from the movie “King”
Shakespeare’s screen versions in our time are, as you know, controversial and not to say what is needed. The reason is not even that the concept of the Western canon, built around an English classic, is gradually dying – everything is much simpler and more prosaic: Shakespeare is simply tired of it. Over the past hundred years, he was literally filmed in theatrical theater, transferred the action to medieval Japan and even modern Finland, so in 2019 from the next film adaptation you expect at least something unusual and new. In addition, let the story of Henry V not so often as the story of the Prince of Denmark, but still quite often got to the screens big and small: there were classic films of the same name by Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, the series “The Empty Crown” and even “Falstaff” Orson Welles. Their number is replenished with the “King” of David Michaud – a film that wants to surprise with realism, but tires of theatricality.

Frame from the movie “King”
Joel Edgerton and David Michaud wrote a script based on three parts of the monumental Genrikhiada – it is not surprising that their tandem had to focus on the same topics, and to throw something aside and simply ignore it. For example, the film’s leitmotif – the abuse of power and the way it spoils people – clearly undermines the core of history, the growing up of Henry V and his transformation from a cuticle who never dreamed of ruling the country, into a rational monarch who cuts down political intrigues in the bud.

Frame from the movie “King”
However, even worse they treated Falstaff – one of the most complex characters in Shakespeare’s work and the unwritten protagonist of plays about Henry IV and Henry V. Behind the image of a drunkard and a rogue is a hero with a progressive philosophy built on nihilism and hedonism. For him, war is not a matter of honor, but an easy way to make money on alcohol and women. An ideal hero for Michaud and Edgerton, who seem to want to move away from the glorification of the war and show that it’s just a slaughter in the mud for the sake of empty ideas, violence for the sake of violence, but they lazily use the character as a lever of pressure on Henry V. The hero Shalame will bend over his friend’s corpse in almost frame-by-frame repeating the ending “Call me by your name” and will finally understand that war is really bad, people are dying.

“King” is just a series of missed opportunities and an attempt to follow the path of least resistance. A 140-minute monster in which Shakespearean theaters about political conspiracies are read theatrically for 2 hours and somersault in the mud for 20 minutes. It’s clear that the fans of Chalamet and Pattinson would love to watch at least 10 hours as their favorites pompously discuss politics, joke about big eggs and a small dick and offer each other patsansky to go one on one, but this is still tiring due to the lack of at least some plot dynamics and hints of psychologism.

But those 20 minutes with the battles are excellent – the battles were not shot as an amateur reconstruction with wooden swords, but realistically and rigidly, with typical pathos speeches (strongly outplaying Chalame) that motivate the soldiers to die on the field, and the viewer not to turn off the film for now. The Battle of Agincourt at its best moments resembles the Battle of the Bastards, but it’s easy to forgive: Sapochnik nevertheless set a new standard for directing large-scale battles. However, other technical trump cards save the weak direction of The King: Adam Arkpaw’s cameraman’s work (Macbeth by Justin Kurzel) and music by Nicholas Brittle, one of the best composers of our time. With big names on the poster, I would like, of course, more, but thanks for that too.